Students from the Technion and Pennsylvania State University capture first place honors in an annual helicopter design competition

Designed a submarine deployable helicopter

Seven students from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Technion- Israel Institute of Technology’s, in cooperation with four students from the Pennsylvania State University, have won the 1^st place in the undergraduate category of the 24^th annual student design competition hosted by the American Helicopter Society and sponsored by Sikorsky. This is the second year in a row that an international team from these two institutions wins this helicopter design competition.

This year the challenge was to design an advanced autonomous compact rotorcraft, deployable from a submarine, in support of special operations forces. The mission required that the vehicle will deploy from the submarine while in periscope depth of 15 meters, rise to sea level, be able to float and take off from a wavy sea, and then fly 260[Km], deploy/pickup the crew and come back safely to the submerged submarine. A major factor was attributed to the vehicle’s completely autonomous operation, stealth, and the ability to transport 2 crew members while injured.

The Technion/Penn-State vehicle, named “Waterspout”, is an innovative, one of a kind concept vehicle, capable of exiting the submarine, float safely to the water surface, and take off vertically to carry out its mission autonomously (the special operation forces do not have any pilot training). The innovative design allows the vehicle to exit through the submarine’s existing missile-silo hatch, thus preventing expensive and complex changes to the submarine’s exterior (the design uses a current operating US-submarine). Furthermore, the Waterspout allows the crew an easy and fast entrance/egress path while hovering above the target-zone, or following landing.

Instead of using a capsule to protect the helicopter from the sea-water, the student chose to make the helicopter itself completely impermeable to water. Although a capsule would save weight and sealing problems, it would require a smaller fuselage to fit in the given submarine hatch, and an extremely precise landing capability on the capsule’s open platform instead of the freedom to land anywhere on the water surface. Every open tube (engine intake/exhaust for example) and all moving parts were fitted with various innovative sealing solutions, all originally designed by the students. This part of the project was unique and has no references from past helicopter designs.

The general work division was as follows: Technion students planned the helicopter’s mechanical deck, blade-folding mechanism, the submarine-helicopter interface, sealing solutions, and performed water-stability analysis. The Penn State group designed the

crash-worthy fuel system, the rotor blades and was in charge of vehicle performance calculations. The two teams cooperated fully on the vehicle’s general concept, landing gear, exterior shape, and the entrance/egress doors.

The students from the Technion were: Mor Gilad, Avichai Elimelech, Roni Hachmon, Igor Teller, Avida Schneller, Elad Sinai and Lior Shani, under the guidance of Professor Omri Rand (Dean of the Faculty of Aerospace Faculty) and Mr. Chen Friedman. The Penn-State team, under the guidance of Professor Ed Smith, director of the Rotorcraft Center of Excellence and Dr. Robert Bill were: Paul Branson, Mihir Mistry, Alex Razzano, and Daniel Leonard. The students received a stipend and were invited to present the Waterspout at the annual forum of the American Helicopter Society.

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